When a Strap is More than Just a Strap - the Tangente

You might recall in my last post I was referencing the NOMOS Encyclopaedia as to "Things that NOMOS customers most frequently complain about"? It was regarding the straps that NOMOS uses with their classic watches - crafted from Horween Shell Cordovan. For those of you who were perusing these when they first hit our shores here in the US back around the "turn of the century", the watches came standard with ostrich straps (at least the ones that I saw). But time moved on, as it inevitably must, and Horween Shell Cordovan became the standard.

The "complaints" cited:

These are made of ostrich leather or special Horween Shell Cordovan. The latter in particular is extremely hard-wearing, water resistant and allows the skin to breathe. Some wearers, however, complain that when you sweat heavily, it smells strange. Complaint number two: if the strap is subject to major fluctuations in temperature, it sometimes takes on a quite powdery appearance. This is not a defect, but is only a secretion of fat, which can easily be wiped off with a soft cloth.

Well, having only a limited experience with the strap (and the watch) I cannot comment definitively on the smell - although Santa Barbara has been quite warm at the moment, I smell nothing untoward ; )

But I think what I really like about the use of this strap is how clearly and obviously well-thought out its selection was.  And this leads me back to a key design point about the Tangente - it is a watch that is not "of the moment".  It was launched in 1992 and although there have been a few variations in size and some truly wonderful visual detours as with the Wempe series, the Tangente has endured and retained it's "Tangenteness" for these 21 years!

Timekeeping holding steady at +5.3

Stay tuned!